Ridley Scott’s original Alien was as lean and relentless as the phallic nightmare that vaulted free of John Hurt’s chest during 1970s cinema’s ultimate brunch from hell. But its very perfection was also a curse, with subsequent entries in the series going off half-cocked by comparison (James Cameron’s gung-ho Aliens from 1986 being the honourable exception).

That sorry decline is now reversed spectacularly with Noah Hawley’s gripping small-screen spin-off Alien: Earth ( Disney + ). Scary, action-packed and often grotesque, it is infused with the bleak spirit of the Ridley Scott blockbuster while refusing to be overawed by it.

The big leap taken by writer and showrunner Hawley is to imagine a universe where HR Giger’s infamous Xenomorph is just one killer species among many. Giger’s m

See Full Page